User segmentation for listings in online publications

ABSTRACT

A method and a system segmenting a user viewing listings in online publications to render the listing according to a rule received from a seller. For example, the system receives one or more listings submitted by a seller. The listing comprises one or more modifiable parameters. The system also receives a rule from the seller, the rule associated with a first listing of the one or more listings. A profile is associated with a user based on data collected about the user. The first listing is rendered to the user based on the profile associated with the user and the rule by modifying the one or more parameters.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/135,523, filed Dec. 19, 2013, which is a Continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/722,926, filed Dec. 20, 2012, which is aContinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/752,022, filed Mar.31, 2010, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,560 on Jan. 29, 2013, thebenefit of priority of each of which is claimed hereby, and each ofwhich are incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates generally to the technical field ofinformation management and, in one specific example, to usersegmentation for listings in online publications.

BACKGROUND

Online publication systems may receive listings from users and publishthose listings on a website so that they are viewable by other users. Insome instances, the online publication system may comprise an onlinemarketplace where sellers may post listings that describe items orservices for sale that are viewable by users.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation inthe figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a network diagram depicting a client-server system, withinwhich one example embodiment may be deployed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a segmentation engine according to anexample embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an example method to prepare a listing foruser segmentation according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an example method to provide a listing to asegmented user according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a high-level entity-relationship diagram, illustrating varioustables that may be maintained, and that are utilized by and support theapplications of the publication system.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are examples of rendered listings based on a userprofile.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are further examples of rendered listings based on auser profile.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are additional examples of rendered listings based on auser profile.

FIG. 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exampleform of a computer system within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods and systems to render listings based on usersegmentation in a publication system are described. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of exampleembodiments. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art thatthe present invention may be practiced without these specific details.

In an online publication system, one or more listings may be posted thatare viewable by users. In some instances, the listings may describeitems for sale by a seller. In various embodiments, a segmentationengine may be used to modify how a listing is rendered based on a usersegmentation associated with the particular user viewing the listing.

The segmentation engine may associate a user with one or more profiles.The profiles may include data about the user such as demographicinformation such as age and sex, buying patterns, and buyer“stickiness.” Buyer stickiness, as used herein, is defined as a metricto measure a buyer's loyalty to one or more sellers. The stickiness of abuyer may be measured based on a buyer's history with a sellerassociated with a particular listing and/or based on the buyer's historywith other merchants.

When a seller provides a listing to be published within the onlinepublication system, the seller may also provide one or more rules forrendering the listing based on the profiles. Based on the rules, and theprofile associated with the user, a listing is rendered for the user. Insome instances, the listing may include different terms or conditionsand/or highlight various features of an item for sale. For example, asticky buyer may be offered free shipping while an infrequent buyer mayhave to pay for shipping. In a further example, a female buyer may beshown a listing showing the item for sale in pink while a male buyer maybe shown the same item in black.

FIG. 1 is a network diagram depicting a client-server system 100, withinwhich one example embodiment may be deployed. A networked system 102, inthe example forms of a network-based marketplace or publication system,and provides server-side functionality, via a network 104 (e.g., theInternet or Wide Area Network (WAN)) to one or more clients. FIG. 1illustrates, for example, a web client 106 (e.g., a browser, such as theInternet Explorer browser developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond,Wash. State), and a programmatic client 108 executing on respectiveclient machines 110 and 112.

An Application Program Interface (API) server 114 and a web server 116are coupled to, and provide programmatic and web interfaces respectivelyto, one or more application servers 118. The application servers 118host one or more marketplace engine(s) 120 and segmentation engine(s)122. The application servers 118 are, in turn, shown to be coupled toone or more databases servers 124 that facilitate access to one or moredatabases 126.

The marketplace engine(s) 120 may provide a number of marketplacefunctions and services to users that access the networked system 102.The segmentation engine(s) 122 may likewise provide a number ofsegmentation services and functions to users such as buyers and sellers.The segmentation engine(s) 122 may allow sellers to specify how alisting should be rendered to potential buyers based on a profileassociated with the buyers for items for sale that are made availablevia the marketplace engine(s) 120. While the marketplace andsegmentation engines 120 and 122 are shown in FIG. 1 to both form partof the networked system 102, it will be appreciated that, in alternativeembodiments, the segmentation engine(s) 122 may form part of asegmentation service that is separate and distinct from the networkedsystem 102.

Further, while the system 100 shown in FIG. 1 employs a client-serverarchitecture, the present invention is of course not limited to such anarchitecture, and could equally well find application in a distributed,or peer-to-peer, architecture system, for example. The variousmarketplace and segmentation engines 120 and 122 could also beimplemented as standalone software programs, which do not necessarilyhave networking capabilities.

The web client 106 accesses the various marketplace and segmentationengines 120 and 122 via the web interface supported by the web server116. Similarly, the programmatic client 108 accesses the variousservices and functions provided by the marketplace and segmentationengines 120 and 122 via the programmatic interface provided by the APIserver 114. The programmatic client 108 may, for example, be a sellerapplication (e.g., the TurboLister application developed by eBay Inc.,of San Jose, Calif.) to enable sellers to author and manage listings onthe networked system 102 in an off-line manner, and to performbatch-mode communications between the programmatic client 108 and thenetworked system 102.

FIG. 1 also illustrates a third party application 128, executing on athird party server machine 130, as having programmatic access to thenetworked system 102 via the programmatic interface provided by the APIserver 114. For example, the third party application 128 may, utilizinginformation retrieved from the networked system 102, support one or morefeatures or functions on a website hosted by the third party. The thirdparty website may, for example, provide one or more promotional,marketplace or segmentation functions that are supported by the relevantapplications of the networked system 102.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a segmentation engine 200 according to anexample embodiment. The segmentation engine 200 may be the same as orsimilar to the segmentation engine 122 of FIG. 1. The segmentationengine 200 operates in conjunction with one or more marketplaceengine(s) 120 in the online publication system (or the networked system102) to render one or more listings for display to a user based on aprofile associated with the user.

The parameters module 202 is to identify one or more parameters of alisting provided by a seller that may be modified by the segmentationengine 200. Some of the parameters that may be modified include, but arenot limited to, price, color, item title, item description, itempicture, shipping options, warranties offered, return policy, and saletype (e.g., auction or buy it now).

The parameters module 202 accesses one or more options associated witheach of the identified parameters. The options each correspond to aparticular parameter. In some instances, two or more parameters may beassociated with each other so that, based on the option associated witha particular parameter for a particular listing, another parameterassociated with the particular listing may be automatically assigned toa specific option. For example, if the parameter “item color” isassociated with the option “pink,” the parameter “item picture” isautomatically assigned to a picture of the item in the color pink. Eachparameter may correspond to an option preselected as a default option.

The rules module 204 provides a rules interface for a seller to provideone or more rules for rendering the listing to potential buyers. Theinterface may include the parameters of the parameters module 202 orsome portion thereof. The portion of the parameters may be selectedbased on, for example, a department corresponding to the item for sale,the seller's history, a season (e.g., holidays) during which the listingis submitted, features specific to the item listed, and other listingsfor items for sale submitted by the same seller.

At least a portion of the parameters selected and the rules interface isprovided to the seller to provide one or more rules for rendering thelisting to a potential buyer. In some instances, the rules may beprovided by the seller according to a profile of a group of users. Theprofiles correspond to a group of users that share one or morecharacteristics. The users may be grouped according to demographicinformation such as age and gender, and buying habits such as monthlyexpenditures and departments associated with the items purchased. Adescription of the profiles may be displayed as part of the rulesinterface. In some instances, only a portion of the profiles may beprovided to the seller. For example, if the item for sale is in theelectronics department, only profiles associated with users whoregularly buy electronics may be provided. In some instances, a sellermay be able to restrict certain users from accessing the listing basedon a profile. For example, a wine merchant may choose to restrict usersassociated with a profile of people below a legal drinking age fromviewing a listing describing a bottle of wine.

In some instances, the rules interface is configured to receive rules as“if, then, else” statements. A single statement may include additional“if, then” clauses to identify additional profiles. The statement, whencompleted by the seller may read, in one example, “if the buyer isassociated with profile A (males age 20-25), then render the listingwith image 1, if the buyer is associated with profile C (males age over40, spends at least $100 per month), then offer a 10% discount, elserender the listing with image 0 and offer no discount.”

In some instances, the rules module 204 may access a record of pastsales and rules used to render the listings. The rules module 204 maysuggest one or more rules to a seller. For example, in the department“books,” the rules engine 204 may suggest that the seller offer freeshipping to profiles associated with females age 20-25 based on previoussuccessful transactions where other sellers offered free shipping. Inanother instance, the rules engine 204 suggests providing a warranty tobuyers who associated with a profile that corresponds to “sticky” userswho frequently make repeat purchases from the same seller.

A user behavior module 206 collects data about one or more potentialbuyers such as demographic data, purchasing data, and stickiness data.The user behavior module 206 may store the data in a profile database208. In the profile database 208, the user behavior data may be storedaccording to one or more profiles. For example, a first profile may beassociated with males age 20-25, a second profile may be associated withfemales age 20-25, and a third profile may include males above age 40and that spend at least $100 per month. A user may belong to one or moreprofiles. For example a user may belong to the first profile (males age20-25) and to another profile (people who spend more than $100 per monthon video games and accessories).

A seasonal module 210 is to access seasonal data that may further beused to render the listing. The seasonal data may identify a particularperiod as being associated with a particular holiday. For example,November 1 to December 24 may be identified as a “Holiday ShoppingSeason” including holidays such as Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and thewinter solstice. For listings to be rendered during this period of time,a seller may provide rules for rendering the listing in accordance witha particular tradition. For example, a seller may wish to provide a“Christmas discount” to users associated with particular profiles forlistings of nativity scenes and to provide a “Chanukah discount” tousers associated with other profiles for listings of menorahs.

Alternatively or additionally, a profile associated with a buyer mayindicate a seasonal tradition observed by the buyer. For example, a“Profile C” may indicate that the buyer celebrates Christmas while a“Profile K” indicates that the buyer celebrates Kwanzaa. Using the rulesmodule 204 in conjunction with the seasonal module 210, the seller may,for example, specify that buyers associated with “Profile C” be offeredguaranteed shipping before Christmas Day (December 25th) and the buyersassociated with “Profile K” be offered guaranteed shipping before thefirst day of Kwanzaa (December 26th).

A rendering module 212 is to render a listing to a user based on aprofile associated with the user and the seller's rules. In response toa query or other browsing activity, the rendering module 212 may renderone or more listings to be displayed to the user. When rendering morethan one listing (e.g., in a results list in response to a query) therendering module 212 may access rules associated with more than oneseller.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an example method 300 to prepare a listing foruser segmentation according to an example embodiment. The method 300 maybe performed when a listing is received from a seller, in a step 302.Alternatively or additionally, the method may be performed some periodof time after a listing has been submitted.

When the listing is received from the seller, the seller may associatethe listing and/or an item for sale described in the listing with aproduct description in a catalog. The product description may describe amass-produced or fungible product having standard features andcharacteristics.

In a step 304, one or more parameters in the listing are identified. Theparameters may include, but are not limited to: price, shipping options,warranty, product description, product image, and a background graphicor color. The parameters may each be associated with one or more optionsincluding a default option that may be provided by (or selected by) theseller. For example, the price parameter may be associated with adefault option such as “no discount” and with additional options such as“10% discount,” “$10 discount,” or a new price.

In a step 306, a determination is made that the seller has previouslysubmitted other listings that describe similar items. The similar itemsare substantially similar items that differ from the present listing bya feature such as size, color, seasonal edition, or the like.

In a step 308, where the seller has previously listed a plurality ofsimilar listings, one or more product features (such as color, modelnumber, size, etc.) may be identified as parameters. To illustrate, if aseller submits a first listing describing a sweater in blue and submitsa second listing describing the same sweater in pink, the parameter“product color” may be identified and associated with the options “blue”and “pink.”

In a step 310, rules associated with the identified parameters arereceived from the seller based on user profiles. The rules indicate thatwhen the listing is provided to a potential buyer, if the potentialbuyer is associated with a certain user profile, that the listing bemodified in a certain way. For example, a seller may specify that usersbelonging to a “Profile A” be shown a listing that offers free shippingand that users belonging to a “Profile B” be shown a listing having adifferent background. In some instances, the seller may specify thatcertain profiles be shown an alternative listing. For example, a sellermay specify potential buyers associated with a “Profile TW” (includingteenage women) be shown a separate listing for a similar item(identified in step 308) in another color, e.g., pink.

In some embodiments, a seller may maintain one of more sets of rulesthat were previously provided. The seller may then select the desiredset of rules when submitting a listing or provide a new set of rules. Aseller may be able to specify a default set of rules that is applied toeach new listing if no other set of rules is specified. In someinstances, the seller may submit rules to be applied to more than onelisting.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an example method 400 to provide a listing to asegmented user or potential buyer according to an example embodiment. Inthe method 400, the user has previously been associated with one or moreprofiles based on demographic information, buying history and otherinformation known about the user.

In a step 402, user activity is received via a user interface. The useractivity may be submission of a query, navigation within a producthierarchy or catalog provided by the online publication system, or thelike. Based on the user activity, one or more listings to be provided tothe user are identified in a step 404.

In a step 406, at least one profile of the user is accessed. The profilemay be previously associated with the user and stored as part of a useraccount or may be determined once the user activity has been received.The profiles may be associated with a user according to department. Forexample, when a listing is identified in the step 404, the listing maybe associated with a particular department such as shoes. A user may beassociated with a first profile for the department “shoes” and otherprofiles for other departments. The first profile is selected from theother profiles based on the identified listing being also associatedwith the department “shoes.”

In a step 408, the rules from the seller associated with the identifiedlisting are accessed. In some embodiments, only the portion of the rulesthat are associated with the particular profile of the user areaccessed.

In a step 410, the parameters of the listing are modified based on therules of step 408 and the profile of step 406. Alternatively, theparameters may be generated, instead of modified, based on the rules andprofile. In a step 412, the listing is rendered or otherwise provided tothe user based on the rules and the profile.

FIG. 5 is a high-level entity-relationship diagram, illustrating varioustables 500 that may be maintained within the databases 126, and that areutilized by and support the engines 120 and 122. A user table 502contains a record for each registered user of the networked system 102,and may include identifier, address, profiles, and financial instrumentinformation pertaining to each such registered user. A user may operateas a seller, a buyer, or both, within the networked system 102. In oneexample embodiment, a buyer may be a user that has accumulated value(e.g., commercial or proprietary currency), and is accordingly able toexchange the accumulated value for items that are offered for sale bythe networked system 102.

A profile table 504 contains a record of each profile that may beassociated with one or more users. The profile table 504 may includerecords indicating the users associated with each profile.

The tables 500 also include an items table 506 in which are maintaineditem records for goods and services that are available to be, or havebeen, transacted via the networked system 102. Each item record withinthe items table 506 may furthermore be linked to one or more userrecords within the user table 502, so as to associate a seller and oneor more actual or potential buyers with each item record.

A parameters table 508 includes data relating to each listing that ischangeable based on the profiles within the profile table 504.

A seller table 510 contains a record for each seller within thenetworked system 102. The seller table 510 may relate each item withinthe items table 506 to a specific seller of the sellers in the networkedsystem 102.

A rules table 512 includes rules received from the seller for eachlisting (each listing may be recorded in the items table 506 or inanother table (not shown)). The rules table 512 may be accessed alongwith the parameters table 508 to render a listing based on the profileof the user.

A department table 514 may be included and may contain informationrelating to department-specific profiles and/or parameters. Thedepartment table 514 may further link to listings describing similarlistings in the same department to provide additional parameters. Forexample, the department table 514 may include an indication that theseller has provided a first listing of a sweater in the color blue and asecond listing of the same sweater in pink within the department“clothing.” In these instances, the parameter “color” may be included inthe parameters table 508 for both the sweaters.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are examples of rendered listings based on a userprofile. FIG. 6A depicts a default or unmodified listing for an “AppleiPod Touch 8 GB WiFi Video MP3 MB528LL 2nd Gen.” The listing includes aprice of $183.89 with no indication of a discount or free shipping. Thelisting of FIG. 6B, while describing the same item being offered by thesame seller, indicates that the user is eligible for free shipping and aspecial price of $173.89. The listing of FIG. 6B is generated based onthe rules submitted by the seller and the profile of the user.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are further examples of rendered listings based on auser profile for the listing shown in FIG. 6A. The rendered listing inFIG. 7A includes the additional description of “Play your favoritegames!” and may be rendered based on demographic information of aprofile associated with the user. For example, the profile associatedwith the user viewing the listing of FIG. 7A may be “males, age 18-27.”

FIG. 7B depicts another rendering of the same listing that is renderedbased on another profile. In this instance, the same seller has anotherlisting for the same item in another color (pink). For profilesassociated with a demographic “women age 18-21,” the listing of FIG. 7Bshows the item “Apple iPod Touch 8 GB WiFi Video MP3 MB528LL 2nd Gen” inthe color pink and includes the additional description “In Pink! Shopfrom your phone!” It is noted that the listing of FIG. 6A may bemodified or the listing associated with the item in pink may replace thelisting of FIG. 6A.

FIGS. 8A and 8B are additional examples of rendered listings based on auser profile. The listing of FIG. 8A may be an unmodified or defaultlisting and/or may be associated with one or more profiles of user. Thelisting of FIG. 8A indicates that shipping is $24.99 and that no returnsare accepted. In contrast, based on a user profile and rules provided bythe seller, the listing of FIG. 8B includes the additional parameters“free shipping” and “Returns: Within 30 days.” Additionally, the listingof FIG. 8B includes a modified (discounted) price of $173.89. Based onthe rules provided by the seller, the listing of FIG. 8B may be renderedto “sticky” buyers who are more likely to purchase additional items fromthe seller in the future.

FIG. 9 shows a diagrammatic representation of machine in the exampleform of a computer system 900 within which a set of instructions, forcausing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, themachine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g.,networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine mayoperate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-clientnetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (ordistributed) network environment. The machine may be a server computer,a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box(STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a webappliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable ofexecuting a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specifyactions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a singlemachine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines that individually or jointly executea set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more ofthe methodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 900 includes a processor 902 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU) a graphics processing unit (GPU) or both),a main memory 904 and a static memory 906, which communicate with eachother via a bus 908. The computer system 900 may further include a videodisplay unit 910 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode raytube (CRT)). In some instances, the video display unit 910 may be atouch screen for receiving input from a user. The computer system 900also includes an alphanumeric input device 912 (e.g., a keyboard), acursor control device 914 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 916, asignal generation device 918 (e.g., a speaker) and a network interfacedevice 920.

The disk drive unit 916 includes a machine-readable medium 922 on whichis stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., software 924)embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions describedherein. The software 924 may also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within the main memory 904 and/or within the processor 902during execution thereof by the computer system 900, the main memory 904and the processor 902 also constituting machine-readable media.

The software 924 may further be transmitted or received over a network926 via the network interface device 920.

While the machine-readable medium 922 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by themachine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present invention. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to,solid-state memories, optical and magnetic media, and carrier wavesignals.

Thus, a method and system to segment users for listings in onlinepublications have been described. Some technical problems that thepresent invention may be used to solve include more efficient data basemanagement, reducing a number of operations performed on a database, andmore efficient delivery of information to one or more users based onuser characteristics. Although the present invention has been describedwith reference to specific example embodiments, it will be evident thatvarious modifications and changes may be made to these embodimentswithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention.Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quicklyascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted withthe understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit thescope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing DetailedDescription, it can be seen that various features are grouped togetherin a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting anintention that the claimed embodiments require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separate embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method comprising: in anelectronic, network commerce system, causing one or morehardware-implemented processors to execute instructions, theinstructions causing the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: selecting a profile for a user from a plurality of profilesusing at least one characteristic of the user determined from datacollected about the user's navigational activities on the networkcommerce system, each respective profile of the plurality of profilesassociated with one or more users that have a common characteristic thatis different from one or more other users associated with a plurality ofother profiles; accessing a listing, the listing describing an attributeof an item; creating a modified listing by applying a rule from aplurality of rules corresponding to the profile selected for the user tomodify the attribute, the rule specifying a modification of theattribute in the listing for a given profile among the plurality ofprofiles; and causing a display of the modified listing on a userinterface, in response to receiving a browsing activity via the userinterface.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified listingincludes at least one of a free shipping offer, an offer of guaranteedshipping by a predetermined date, and a restriction of user access tothe listing.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute is selectedfrom a group comprising background graphic, sale type, item description,item picture, warranties offered, and return policy.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a second attribute is dependent on the attribute, andwherein the method further comprises modifying the second attributebased upon the modification of the attribute.
 5. The method of claim 4,wherein the attribute is a color and the second attribute is an itempicture.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified listing is sentto the user.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user's navigationalactivities on the network commerce system include one or more of:navigation within a product hierarchy, and navigation within a productcatalog provided by the network commerce system.
 8. A system comprising:a memory to store a listing, the listing describing an attribute of anitem; one or more hardware-implemented processors configured toimplement: a user behavior module configured to select a profile for auser from a plurality of profiles using at least one characteristic ofthe user determined from data collected about the user's navigationalactivities on the network commerce system, each respective profile ofthe plurality of profiles associated with one or more users that have acommon characteristic that is different from one or more other usersassociated with a plurality of other profiles; a modification moduleconfigured to create a modified listing by applying a rule from aplurality of rules corresponding to the profile selected for the user tomodify the attribute of the listing, the rule specifying a modificationof the attribute in the listing for a given profile among the pluralityof profiles, and cause a display of the modified listing on a userinterface, in response to receiving a browsing activity via the userinterface.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the modified listingincludes at least one of a free shipping offer, an offer of guaranteedshipping by a predetermined date, and a restriction of user access tothe listing.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the attribute isselected from the group comprising background graphic, sale type, itemdescription, item picture, warranties offered, and return policy. 11.The system of claim 8, wherein a second attribute is dependent on theattribute, and wherein the modification module is configured to modifythe second attribute based upon the modification of the attribute. 12.The system of claim 11, wherein the attribute is a color and the secondattribute is an item picture.
 13. The system of claim 8, comprising amarketplace module configured to provide the network commerce system.14. The system of claim 8, wherein the user's navigational activities onthe network commerce system include one or more of: navigation within aproduct hierarchy, and navigation within a product catalog provided bythe network commerce system.
 15. A non-transitory computer readablemedium comprising instructions, which when performed by ahardware-implemented computer, cause the computer to perform operationscomprising: selecting a profile for a user from a plurality of profilesusing at least one characteristic of the user determined from datacollected about the user's navigational activities on the networkcommerce system, each respective profile of the plurality of profilesassociated with one or more users that have a common characteristic thatis different from one or more other users associated with a plurality ofother profiles; accessing a listing, the listing describing an attributeof an item; creating a modified listing by applying a rule from aplurality of rules corresponding to the profile selected for the user tomodify the attribute, the rule specifying a modification of theattribute in the listing for a given profile among the plurality ofprofiles; and causing a display of the modified listing on a userinterface, in response to receiving a browsing activity via the userinterface.
 16. The computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein themodified listing includes at least one of a free shipping offer, anoffer of guaranteed shipping by a predetermined date, and a restrictionof user access to the listing.
 17. The computer readable medium of claim15, wherein the attribute is selected from the group comprisingbackground graphic, sale type, item description, item picture,warranties offered, and return policy.
 18. The computer readable mediumof claim 15, wherein a second attribute is dependent on the attribute,and wherein the computer readable medium comprises further instructions,which when performed by the computer cause the computer to perform theoperations comprising: modifying the second attribute based upon themodification of the attribute.
 19. The computer readable medium of claim18, wherein the attribute is a color selected based on a gender of theuser and the second attribute is an item picture.
 20. The computerreadable medium of claim 15, wherein the user's navigational activitieson the network commerce system include one or more of: navigation withina product hierarchy, and navigation within a product catalog provided bythe network commerce system.